Ishtar is a Belgian (Flemish) folk band who represented Belgium at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest with the song O Julissi, sung in an imaginary language. They competed in the first semi-final on 20 May 2008.

"O Julissi" is a song by Ishtar. The band's site [1] claims that the song is in an imaginary language. There is, however, a certain similarity to Ukrainian; in particular, the first line is fully understandable (Ukrainian "Ой у лісі на ялині", meaning "Oh, in the forest on a spruce"). The folk song represented Belgium at the semi-finals of Eurovision Song Contest 2008, at 20 May 2008, in Belgrade, but did not proceed to the finals. The single was released 14 March 2008. The song entered the Belgian Ultratop at #7. In its second week, O Julissi topped the list.

Ishtar's song was elected after they won the final of Eurosong 2008. Ishtar, until then an unknown band, defeated better known artists, like pop singers Sandrine and Brahim. The other contestants in the final were rock group Paranoiacs and Nelson, who had written a modern ballad.

1.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie

2.
Folk music
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Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century, but is applied to music older than that. Some types of music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways, as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers and it has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. Starting in the century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times and this type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, electric folk, and others. Even individual songs may be a blend of the two, a consistent definition of traditional folk music is elusive. The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions and they are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes. Traditional folk music also includes most indigenous music, however, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music is. Some do not even agree that the term Folk Music should be used, Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of old songs, with no known composers, the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character. Such definitions depend upon processes rather than abstract musical types, one widely used definition is simply Folk music is what the people sing. For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, Folk music was already. seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear, particularly in a community uninfluenced by art music and by commercial and printed song. In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a schema comprising four types, primitive or tribal, elite or art, folk. Music in this genre is often called traditional music. Although the term is only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre

3.
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki and this year was the first time there were three contests, two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were hosted by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović at the Belgrade Arena which had a capacity of 25,000 seats. After a total of 272 points, Dima Bilan representing Russia was declared the winner, with the song Believe written by American Jim Beanz, so far this has been the only time Russia has won the contest. Russia came third in the semi-final, making it the winner with the worst semi-final result, ukraine were runners up for the second year running, with 3rd place going to Greece, 4th to Armenia seeing their best result so far and 5th to Norway. 2008 also saw, for the first time ever, Eurovision. tv streaming national finals live on ESCTV with broadcasters permission. On 30 January 2008, Eurovision. tv revealed the theme of the Contest, The Confluence of Sound, Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Since Serbia was the winner of the preceding contest, the 2008 contest was held there. The Belgrade Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest, on 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the Eurovision keys to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a tradition from the 2008 contest and onward, ukraine was considered an option since they came second in Eurovision Song Contest 2007. YLE were another option, as hosted the previous years competition in Helsinki. Greeces Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi also offered the EBU to host the contest in Athens and it was later decided that the contest would stay in Belgrade, with the EBU giving support. RTS would gain a guarantee of safety and security from the government of Serbia for all visitors, the delegations of Albania, Croatia and Israel had special security. RTS ran a competition led to the creation of the 2008 Contests branding, logo. The theme of the Contest was based around the confluence of sound and this was symbolic as Belgrade lies on the confluence of two European rivers, the Sava and Danube. The logo chosen, a treble clef, formed the basis of the design created by Boris Miljković. The postcards in the first and second semi-final were based around the creation of the flag of the nation that was to perform next, each post card had a short story related to each country and its people. During each postcard a short letter was displayed, the postcards were brought to an end by a stamp with this years Eurovision logo

4.
O Julissi
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O Julissi also known as O Julissi Na Jalini is a song by the Belgian six-piece band Ishtar. The swing influenced song represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 first semi-final in Belgrade, O Julissi was released as a single on 14 March 2008, and the song entered the Belgian Ultratop at #7. In its second week, O Julissi topped the list, ishtars song was elected after they won the final of Eurosong 2008. Ishtar, until then a band, defeated better known artists, like pop singers Sandrine. The other contestants in the final were rock group Paranoiacs and Nelson, Ishtar performed their song during the semi-finals on May 20,2008 but did not qualify to the final. Official Eurovision Song Contest site, history by year,2008, detailed info and lyrics, The Diggiloo Thrush, O Julissi Na Jalini

5.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster

6.
Spruce
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A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea /paɪˈsiːə/, a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from about 20–60 m tall when mature, the needles, or leaves, of spruce trees are attached singly to the branches in a spiral fashion, each needle on a small, peg-like structure. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pegs, spruces are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. They are also used by the larvae of gall adelgids, the word spruce entered the English language from the Polish Prusy, Prussia. DNA analyses have shown that traditional classifications based on the morphology of needle, Spruce has been found in the fossil record from the early Cretaceous,136 million years ago. Thirty-five named species of spruce exist in the world, the Plant List has 59 accepted spruce names. Beyond that, determination can become more difficult, intensive sampling in the Smithers/Hazelton/Houston area of British Columbia showed Douglas, according to Coates et al. Daubenmire, after sampling, had already recognized the importance of the 2 latter characters. Without cones, morphological differentiation among spruce species and their hybrids is more difficult, but, if an extended photoperiod is provided for Sitka spruce, seedlings become unacceptably tall by the end of the first growing season. g. Growth rhythm, shoot and root weight, and needle serration, or some combination of, Spruce seedlings are most susceptible immediately following germination, and remain highly susceptible through to the following spring. Seedlings that germinate late in the season are particularly vulnerable because they are tiny and have not had time to harden off fully. Mortality rates generally decrease sharply thereafter, but losses often remain high for some years, establishment is a subjective concept based on the idea that once a seedling has successfully reached a certain size, not much is likely to prevent its further development. Growth remains very slow for several to many years, Spruce is useful as a building wood, commonly referred to by several different names including North American timber, SPF and whitewood. Spruce wood is used for many purposes, ranging from construction work. The Wright brothers first aircraft, the Flyer, was built of spruce, because this species has no insect or decay resistance qualities after logging, it is generally recommended for construction purposes as indoor use only. Spruce wood, when left outside cannot be expected to last more than 12–18 months depending on the type of climate it is exposed to, Spruce is one of the most important woods for paper uses, as it has long wood fibres which bind together to make strong paper. The fibres are thin walled and collapse to thin bands upon drying, spruces are commonly used in mechanical pulping as they are easily bleached. Together with northern pines, northern spruces are commonly used to make NBSK, spruces are cultivated over vast areas as pulpwood

7.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire

8.
Brahim Attaeb
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Brahim Attaeb better known by his stage name and mononym Brahim, is a Belgian R&B singer and presenter of Moroccan descent. Brahim became famous when he participated in Belgian first inaugural season of the Idool series, the Belgian Flanders version of the Idol series. Despite this loss, he still got a deal as his song Turn the Music Up hit the top of the Ultratop 50 Flanders Singles Chart. He gained fame in Morocco through a cover of Didi, an English language remake of Cheb Khaleds song, the single was successful in Belgium reaching #10 on Ultratop 50 charts. A French language added rap segment featured Nessa, Eurosong / Eurovision Brahim has tried twice to represent Belgium in Eurovision Song Contest. In 2006, he took part in Eurosong 06, the Belgian selection process for Eurovision, passing the semi-finals he earned a wildcard to the finals, but finished only fourth. In 2008, he tried yet again for Eurovision by taking part in Eurosong 08 with What I Like About You, coming second in the initial round, he reached the finals finishing fourth overall. Brahim has also been a radio and television personality. In March 2011, he started the programme I-CLiPS as presenter, the show was on VRT children channel Ketnet. He also presented the 2-hour radio show MNM Dance 50 VRT radio station known as MNM, in 2012, he returned to Ketnet with I-fan. He also spearheaded a campaign with the song Move in collaboration with Charlotte Leysen. It was picked as Radio 2 Zomerhit 2012 for the Best children pop category, in late 2012, he stopped presenting MNM Dance 50, but coming back with a similar format show called Urban 50 again on MNM radio station. The program broadcast on Eén Belgian Flemish station is an adaptation of a series of shows by Moroccan-Dutch artist Ali B on TROS entitled Ali B op volle toeren

9.
Nelson (artist)
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Nelson Faro DeCastro, known professionally as Nelson, is an American comic book artist known for his airbrushed cover art, and his interior penciling, inking and coloring work. He is also a writer and teacher, nelsons career began in the early 1990s, doing cover work and publishing his creator-owned work for Dark Horse Comics, before becoming a frequent artist for Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Nelson Faro DeCastro was born February 17,1969 and his earliest memory of reading comics is of a Spider-Man book featuring the Gibbon, illustrated by John Romita, whom he cites as his primary artistic influence. Other influences he names include Caravaggio, Joe Jusko, Frank Frazetta, Nelson studied art at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Before his comic book began, DeCastro created artwork for the band Mucky Pup. He provided the art for their 1987 album Cant You Take a Joke. Nelson broke into the American comic book industry in 1992 doing airbrushed cover work for Dark Horse Comics series, such as Insider Vol.2 #6 and the four-issue miniseries RoboCop, Prime Suspect. In 1993 he wrote and illustrated his own creator-owned horror character, Eudaemon, in the anthology Dark Horse Presents #72-74 and he would later publish through Dark Horse a three-issue Eudaemon series, which he wrote, pencilled, and inked, and for which he provided airbrush-painted covers. His first comic work for the Big Two publishers was a 6-page comic book story he penciled and inked for Marvel Comicss Custom Comic division and he would also provide the publisher with a painted cover for Marvel Comics Ghost Rider #18 in 1993. His first work for DC Comics doing interior illustration for Team Superman Secret Files and Origins #1, other DC work during the 1990s includes Birds of Prey, The Ravens #1. In 1999, Nelson worked for Marvel Comics, beginning with a painted cover and his other Marvel work that year included issues of Generation X, Black Panther and X-Force. Nelson continued to work for Marvel Comics in the early 2000s, on such titles as Iron Man, Ant-Mans Big Christmas, Generation X, Marvel Knights, Elektra and he also provided work for DC Comics, on Birds of Prey and 2004s The DC Comics Encyclopedia. His other mid-2000s work for DC included doing inks for Superman, The Journey and inking over John Byrnes pencils, although he mostly worked for Marvel Comics in the late 2000s, in 2008 Nelson provided the interior pencils and inks for DCs Green Lantern Corps #21-22. He also provided inks for War of Kings, Savage World of Skaar, for which he was credited on the cover as DeCastro and that year he also inked issues of Incredible Hercules, and penciled and inked Iron Man, Iron Protocols. As of 2010, Nelson teaches a Drawing for Cartoonists course at Manhattans School of Visual Arts, DeCastro has illustrated cards for the Magic, The Gathering collectible card game. DeCastro is a guitar player, and expressed a desire to try sculpture. SoundCloud Nelson DeCastro at the Comic Book DB

10.
Wikimedia Commons
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Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound, and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, the repository contains over 38 million media files. In July 2013, the number of edits on Commons reached 100,000,000, the project was proposed by Erik Möller in March 2004 and launched on September 7,2004. The expression educational is to be according to its broad meaning of providing knowledge. Wikimedia Commons itself does not allow fair use or uploads under non-free licenses, for this reason, Wikimedia Commons always hosts freely licensed media and deletes copyright violations. The default language for Commons is English, but registered users can customize their interface to use any other user interface translations. Many content pages, in particular policy pages and portals, have also translated into various languages. Files on Wikimedia Commons are categorized using MediaWikis category system, in addition, they are often collected on individual topical gallery pages. While the project was proposed to also contain free text files. In 2012, BuzzFeed described Wikimedia Commons as littered with dicks, in 2010, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger reported Wikimedia Commons to the FBI for hosting sexualized images of children known as lolicon. Wales responded to the backlash from the Commons community by voluntarily relinquishing some site privileges, over time, additional functionality has been developed to interface Wikimedia Commons with the other Wikimedia projects. Specialized uploading tools and scripts such as Commonist have been created to simplify the process of uploading large numbers of files. In order to free content photos uploaded to Flickr, users can participate in a defunct collaborative external review process. The site has three mechanisms for recognizing quality works, one is known as Featured pictures, where works are nominated and other community members vote to accept or reject the nomination. This process began in November 2004, another process known as Quality images began in June 2006, and has a simpler nomination process comparable to Featured pictures. Quality images only accepts works created by Wikimedia users, whereas Featured pictures additionally accepts nominations of works by third parties such as NASA, the three mentioned processes select a slight part from the total number of files. However, Commons collects files of all quality levels, from the most professional level across simple documental, files with specific defects can be tagged for improvement and warning or even proposed for deletion but there exists no process of systematic rating of all files. The site held its inaugural Picture of the Year competition, for 2006, all images that were made a Featured picture during 2006 were eligible, and voted on by eligible Wikimedia users during two rounds of voting

11.
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Belgium has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The only countries with more appearances are Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Belgium have been absent only three times in total, in 1994,1997 and 2001, due to low scores in the previous contests that relegated them from the contest. Belgium has won the contest once, in 1986, in the first 20 years of the contest, Belgiums best result was Tonias fourth place in 1966. In 1978, Jean Vallée achieved Belgiums first top three placement, when he was second, in 1986, Sandra Kim became the first and to date only winner for Belgium, when she performed the song Jaime la Vie, to win as a 13-year-old in Bergen. Belgiums only other top three result came in 2003, when the group Urban Trad finished second in Riga, losing out by two points. Belgium have finished last in the contest five times, most recently in 2000 and have twice received nul points, in 1962 and 1965. After the introduction of the round in 2004, Belgium failed to reach the final in seven out of eight contests, the exception being Tom Dice. Belgium has since achieved two top ten results, with Loïc Nottet finishing fourth 2015, and Laura Tesoro finishing 10th in 2016. Belgium has two national broadcasters of the contest, Flemish broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep and French-speaking broadcaster Radio télévision belge de la communauté française, the two broadcasters rotate selection for the Eurovision Song Contest each year. While VRT normally hosts a national final, Eurosong, when selecting their entries for Eurovision, Belgium has won the contest once, in 1986 when Sandra Kim won with her song Jaime la vie in Bergen, Norway. Although she claimed she was 15 years old, she was actually only 13, currently the minimum age for participation is 16 and thus Sandra Kim will remain the youngest winner unless the age limit is lowered. By winning in 1986, Belgium became the last of the French-speaking countries to win the contest, now Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland all had won at least once. Belgium scored a record at the time, with Sandra Kim earning a never seen before amount of 176 points. Kim received 77. 2% of the maximum score, which, as of 2016. Belgiums next best placing has been second which it has achieved twice at the 1978 and 2003 contests, however, it has been last seven times. In 2003, Urban Trad sang in an invented language earning second place with 165 points,2 points fewer than that years winner Turkey, ishtar did the same in 2008, but came 17th in the first semi-final and thus did not qualify for the final. In the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 Belgium participated in the first semi-final on 12 May 2009, however they received just one point which came from Armenia, the 2010 entry for Belgium was Tom Dice, runner-up of the Belgian Flemish version of The X Factor in 2008. Dice was internally selected and announced by VRT on 25 November 2009, Tom Dice finished 1st in the first semi-final, allowing Belgium to participate to the final for the first time since the introduction of the semi-finals

Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers w

Folk music
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Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century, but is applied to music older than that. Some types of music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways, as music transmitted orally, music with unknow

1.
Béla Bartók recording Slovak peasant singers in 1908

2.
Indians always distinguished between classical and folk music, though in the past even classical Indian music used to rely on the unwritten transmission of repertoire.

3.
Armenian traditional musicians

4.
Assyrians playing zurna and Davul, the typically used instruments for their folk music.

Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Contest. It was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki and this year was the first time there were three contests, two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were ho

1.
The Belgrade Arena, the 2008 venue.

3.
Presenters Željko Joksimović and Jovana Janković during the first semi-final

4.
Eurovision Song Contest: Belgrade 2008

O Julissi
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O Julissi also known as O Julissi Na Jalini is a song by the Belgian six-piece band Ishtar. The swing influenced song represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 first semi-final in Belgrade, O Julissi was released as a single on 14 March 2008, and the song entered the Belgian Ultratop at #7. In its second week, O Julissi topped the lis

1.
"O Julissi"

Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has

1.
Miniature of St Luke from the Peresopnytsia Gospels (1561).

2.
Ukrainian-speaking world

3.
The 1921 Soviet recruitment poster. It uses traditional Ukrainian imagery with Ukrainian-language text: "Son! Enroll in the school of Red commanders, and the defense of Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."

Spruce
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A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea /paɪˈsiːə/, a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from about 20–60 m tall when mature, the needles, or leaves, of spruce trees are attached singly to the branches in a spiral fas

1.
Spruce

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P. glauca sapling, Kluane National Park, Canada

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Immature P. mariana cones, Ouimet Canyon, Ontario, Canada

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P. pungens cone and foliage

Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th mil

Brahim Attaeb
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Brahim Attaeb better known by his stage name and mononym Brahim, is a Belgian R&B singer and presenter of Moroccan descent. Brahim became famous when he participated in Belgian first inaugural season of the Idool series, the Belgian Flanders version of the Idol series. Despite this loss, he still got a deal as his song Turn the Music Up hit the top

1.
Brahim performing during Radio 2 Zomerhit event (2012)

2.
Brahim Attaeb (2005)

Nelson (artist)
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Nelson Faro DeCastro, known professionally as Nelson, is an American comic book artist known for his airbrushed cover art, and his interior penciling, inking and coloring work. He is also a writer and teacher, nelsons career began in the early 1990s, doing cover work and publishing his creator-owned work for Dark Horse Comics, before becoming a fre

1.
Nelson at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 18, 2009.

Wikimedia Commons
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Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound, and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, the repository contains over 38 million media files. In July 2013, the number of edits on Commons reached 100,000,000, the project was proposed by Erik Möller in March 2004 and launched on September 7,2004. The ex

Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Belgium has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The only countries with more appearances are Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Belgium have been absent only three times in total, in 1994,1997 and 2001, due to low scores in the previous contests